Sam Cave Classical Guitarist and Composer

Sam Cave is a young English guitarist and composer who studied with Gary Ryan and Chris Stell at the Royal College of Music in London with financial assistance from The Countess of Munster Musical Trust. He has also studied with Vincent Lindsey-Clark, Michael Zev-Gordon, Michael Finnissy, Gilbert Biberian and Craig Ogden and graduated from the University of Southampton with a first class honours degree and the Edward Wood memorial prize in music.

Regularly performing in venues such as the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Gallery and the Turner Sims Hall in Southampton, Sam appears both as a soloist, as part of the flute and guitar ensemble ‘Duo Nuevo’ (with flautist Ruth Corney) and as a chamber musician with composer/performer ensemble ‘ACE’ (Avant-Garde Composers Ensemble) and ‘Southampton New Music Group’. Sam has also performed as part of the London International Guitar Festival, the Cheltenham Lunchtime Concert Series, 2009 Exhibition Road Music Day (European Day of Music) and as a soloist with the Lantree Sinfonia and Winchester Chamber Orchestra. Together with soprano Sarah Barnes at the ‘Leed Lieder+’ festival of contemporary art song he premiered Steven Nunes’ Lost on the Dunesin a concert which ‘…challenged the future…’ (The Times). Early in 2010 ‘Duo Nuevo’ performed the premiere of a new work by Hossein Hadisi entitled Lullaby for a Deaf Childwhich was written specially for the duo. Sam appeared on BBC Radio in March performing music by Agustin Barrios and he has just performed at the groundbreaking City Showcase festival in and around the iconic O2 in Greenwich. Most recently Sam attended the SoundSCAPE festival of contemporary music in Italy. As one of ten international performers selected to attend, he performed solo and chamber works by Italian and English composers including music by Stephen Goss and Carla Rebora. Sam also made his St John’s, Smith Square debut in 2010, performing Mahler’s epic seventh symphony with I Maestri under the baton of Ian Hellen and as part of British Harpsichord Society weekend Sam performed at Handel House with Jane chapman, premiering Mark Wolf’s piece ‘Hype’, whilst his own work ‘Grace’ was premiered by Marie van Rhijn.

Sam’s passion for twentieth and twenty-first century repertoire shines through his work and to date he has given over 25 world premiere performances of music by Aldo Clementi, John Habron, George Holloway, Hossein Hadisi and many others. As a composer Sam’s work has received acclaim from some of the leading composers of our time and his works have been performed in England, Germany, Australia and Norway. In November 2009 he was invited to speak about his recent works on BBC Radio and he has written for Keynote+, the Gemini Ensemble, The Hola, the New Ensemble, the Achille Trio and the Swedish guitarist Johan Lofivng.

“My music is based around tension and energy, the passage of time and the organic ebb-and-flow of musical discourse. Frenzied energy and glass-like repose are often set side by side, juxtaposed or melted, dovetailed and synthesized together. The music seeks to excite, to challenge, to provoke contemplation and expressively reaches for unfamiliar places or extreme climates of previously uninhabited heat and serenity.” Sc

Sam Cave plays a 2006 guitar by Rohan Lowe.

‘…Sam Cave was great; as the controller of BBC Radio 4 would say, ‘alpha’…’

Neal Sleat (BBC Radio 4 presenter)

‘…Innovative programming, real passion and commitment…’

Craig Ogden (international concert guitarist)

“The gestures contain a rare degree of energy and commitment…..Sam explores his contemporary aesthetic with real ambition and concentrated purpose”